It was another ordinary day in my unusual life. What makes my life so unusual? Well, let's begin with the one important fact about my family: my Mom's a human, my Dad's a wolf.
So what does that make me?
Well, from what I see every time I stare into my reflection is that I've certainly inherited my Mom's pink hair and her eyes. Can't say that I've inherited much from my Dad, apart from my partial wolf abilities.
I discovered those at the age of seven. I was practicing on my folk guitar and got impatient that I couldn't get a certain cord right. My rage began building up and then shortly afterwards released.
A very loud PRANG! Echoed in my room.
All the strings on my guitar snapped.
I looked down at my hands. All I could see that stood out from my ordinary hands were these long talon-like claws extruding upwards from my fingers. Not a trace of normal fingernail to be seen on any of my fingers.
"What? What's going on? What's happening to me?" I wondered aloud in a panicked tone.
My head darted backwards and forwards from my hands to my broken guitar. My mind was trying to process what happened but came up with nothing.
Does this mean I can't play my guitar anymore?
Tears began welling up in my eyes. I dashed out of my room and ran downstairs, crying and clutching my guitar that was bigger than me back then.
After all the crying followed by hugs from my parents, they both explained to me that I am not an ordinary human like Mom, I'm a hybrid of wolf and human, and sometimes, my wolf powers can activate.
"So does this mean I can't play anymore?" I asked with my bottom lip trembling.
"Of course you can still play, sweetie. You just need to be more careful." Mom replied in a soothing tone.
"Yeah, the strings can be replaced no problem." Dad added whilst inspecting my guitar.
"It looks like you just have to watch your emotions a bit 'cause it looks like that's what's triggering your wolf powers."
"Now Wolfgang, how could you possibly know that?" Asked Mom as she wrapped her arms around me.
Dad glanced over at Mom with a peculiar twinkle in his eyes and a slight smile on his muzzle.
"When I protected you from your violent sister." He replied smoothly.
Mom gasped and covered my ears. I couldn't hear the rest of what she had to say but judging from her facial expression, she didn't seem happy about Dad's response.
But years later down the road, my wolf powers developed. Along with my claws, my wolf ears and tail would occasionally appear. My ears would droop whenever I'm sad (so I've been told). My fangs would appear whenever I'm mad along with the change of my eye colour from a soft brown to a harsh amber and slitted pupils. My half wolf appearance can also show through if I'm stressed, frightened and sometimes when I'm desperately hungry.
The only emotion that doesn't trigger anything is when I'm happy.
But lately, I'm finding that trying hard to be happy all the time is actually harder that back when I was younger.
I'm now 13 years old. My birthday passed a couple of weeks ago. Who knew that once you start your teenage years, your family starts to almost drift apart?
It first started with my sister, Freya, a a pink wolf who was once a kind and caring big sister, but now a wolf who shuts herself away from everyone, wears heavy makeup, sneaks out to late night parties and has a secret boyfriend each week. You could tell Freya was around by hearing Dad arguing with her.
After the most recent argument, I was told that Freya packed her bags and moved out to live with her recent boyfriend, whoever that was, and that she wasn't coming back anytime sooner. Between Dad's anger and Mom's crying, I didn't know how to feel about it all.
Then a few weeks later, I was bombarded with a sudden surprise of 5 young adopted wolf pup brothers. Again, I had no idea on how to react to this. Did Mom and Dad do this to replace Freya? Did they want a baby but chose to adopt 4 wolf pups instead? Did they do this so I wouldn't be lonely now that Freya's gone?
I had no idea. But there was something that I understood very quickly...
Like all young brothers, they're all a bunch of menaces.
They destroy the furniture, any valuables you leave behind, your interaction time with your parents, the list gets bigger day by day.
And then little did I know it, but gradually, I began to act like Freya in only one sense:
I began to hide away in my room.
And all I would do there was just play my guitar...